Archive for the ‘WETA Digital’ Category

The TORn family would like to congratulate Sir Peter Jackson who is among the six new inductees to New Zealand’s Business Hall of Fame. The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film productions contributed to the New Zealand economy for years, not to mention Weta Workshop, Weta Digital, and many other spin-off endeavors that Peter had a personal hand in founding, or contributed to in partnership with others.

The hall of fame was established in 1994 to recognise and celebrate individual business people who have made a big contribution to the economic and social development of New Zealand. According to the stuff.co.nz article, the inauguration ceremony will take place on Thursday, June 9. Congratulations, P.J.!! Read More …

Weta Digital has been nominated for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Real-time Project by the Visual Effects Society for the virtual reality demo “The Hobbit: A Thief in the Shadows.” The virtual reality (VR) experience, a collaboration between Weta Digital, Epic Games, NVIDIA and Oculus is designed to let someone wearing the Oculus virtual reality headset take Bilbo’s place as he first encounters Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) in his lair.

San Diego Comic Con 2015 is now in the books, let’s do a little recap for any all things related to Tolkien fandom and TORn. The TORn panel, titled “What’s next for Tolkien Fans?” was on Friday afternoon, and directly after the panel we had our annual Tolkien themed Cosplay photo Op, as seen in the first photo.

The panel itself began at 4pm, but without the snazzy little visual presentation we normally have. The laptop that the presentation was on, and had been operating just 2 hours earlier, decided it was taking the afternoon off. Apparently it helped the panel move along at a quicker pace, leaving plenty of room for questions at the end. So, what was discussed in the panel, what IS next for Tolkien fans? (more…)

We’re delighted to bring you an excerpt from Cinefex‘s forthcoming behind-the-scenes account of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

Joe Fordham’s 26-page feature in Cinefex 141 includes in-depth interviews with the film’s effects artists — and Peter Jackson — and is accompanied by 28 behind-the-scenes photos and frame clips from the movie. Many of them are exclusive to Cinefex.

TORn staffers Ashlee Rose Scott and Greg Barrett were among TORn’s official photographers for The One Last Party at the Hollywood Post 43 of The American Legion. They took more than 2,500 photos of all the action on the night, but here’s a handful of teasers to tide you over while we sort out the very best.

Also very quickly, on behalf of TheOnering.net, I’d like to again thank all the Indiegogo supporters and sponsors who helped make the party possible. Whether you contributed $1 or $1,000, or even simply told folks about our campaign on social media, this party could not have happened without your belief and backing! We hope everyone who attended had a ball, and that those who weren’t able to make it had fun watching our live stream.

We do still have some Indiegogo perk fulfillment to complete, and for those waiting on perks, we’ll be in touch soon to let you know what’s happening there.

In the meantime, enjoy these great teaser stills from the party!(more…)

There is a lot to write about and our staff is spread pretty thin these days, but this article about Weta Digital and what some of the processes were for “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” is just too good to miss.

Here is a taste:

The new tools implemented for the film included the real-time lighting software Gazebo, technology in development two years ago (see “Shaping Middle-earth,” January/February 2013), new rendering software called Manuka, and a new virtual production pipeline. The scale of shots with the armies made their implementation necessary. (more…)

The Art of Film Magic – 20 Years of Weta delves into the incredible work of the folks at Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, and how they’ve built Weta into one of the world’s leaders when it comes to making movies amazing. If you been thinking about grabbing this two-book set, here’s your chance to add it to your collection.

We’re teaming up with our friends at HarperCollins to give away a copy. (more…)

Now that the last of The Hobbit Trilogy has been released with early showings tonight the many tie-in products are starting to hit the shelves. One of these is the next in the amazing set of production books on these movies by our friends at Weta Workshop, which have all been published by our friends at HarperCollins.

The next book in this series is The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Chronicles: Art & Design, which covers just a portion of the amazing insider details that it took to bring this movie to the big screen. You can order this fantastic book right now from HarperCollins for a special price right now of $33.75 to give to your favorite Tolkien fan for the holidays.

Join us in Los Angeles in February at The One Last Party

We’re hosting a Party of Special Magnificence next February — a final toast to all SIX movies, both The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit trilogy.

We’re inviting you to join us and make it happen through our Indiegogo campaign — so we can all celebrate Peter Jackson’s Middle-earth movies together!

In a rare move, Stephen Colbert was granted an interview (er…audience) with none other than Smaug himself on his American television show “The Colbert Report”. As many of you know, Stephen is a great Tolkien fan, and Smaug seemingly left his last press interview of the day just for him.

The two share some of their common political interests, and Smaug discusses some of the difficulties of working on the Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy – as well as his distaste for several “pretender” Hollywood dragons. (more…)

The winners of last month’s Hobbit Fan Contest that got to go to New Zealand and watch an in-progress cut of “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” and experience the beautiful scenes of the north and south islands and the hospitality of Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand, won their spots by producing short films.

As reports from the experience suggest, there was a great bonding of the 75 winners and their guests during the week-long tour of Middle-earth. These bonds are on display in a “thank you” video that the group organized to give to Peter Jackson and all the many folks who helped make the trip amazing. There is even a nod to TheOneRing.net which honestly touches us.

Turns out that crew can make a pretty great video with parts from all around the world. Their sincerity and appreciation really comes through and will make all fans proud. Enjoy! #HobbitFanContest

As part of the American Film Institute Film Festival in Hollywood, CA., WETA Digital is doing a free presentation lecture on the evolution of digital technology over the last two decades. Although the blurb explicitly mentions Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, it seems inconceivable that they wouldn’t discuss Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films as well.

The lecture is happening at the Chinese in Theatre 1 on November 10 at 1pm. Tickets are free so best hurry to grab yours, one suspects. (more…)

Peter Jackson held a a world-wide contest for fans with the ultimate prize of traveling to New Zealand to watch “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” with the director. Fans world-wide responded and as promised, winners were announced from the four corners of the globe.

Today we can share the news that TheOneRing.net will be on the trip as well to bring the wonders of New Zealand and the experiences of the winners to fans just as fast as we can type. Tourism New Zealand and Air New Zealand are giving the winners a Middle-earth experience on the North and South Islands before viewing the film with Jackson. (TheOneRing has not been invited to see the film and will enjoy a nice walk during the screening!) (more…)

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